Fishermen were casting their lines into the urban waters of Washington, D.C., into a river notorious as one of the dirtiest in the nation. What’s more, according to a recent study, they represented a small fraction of the 17,000 or more residents of this metropolitan area who are consuming fish from a river that has all the markings of a Superfund site.

Sometimes you just can’t believe it, the article even says that a sewer line directly dumps a billion gallons of human waste every year.

Yeah, the river really needs help.

It is a beautiful river – here is a Great Egret, near Bladensburg Waterfront Park, in Prince George’s County, MD. (Photo: Mr. T in DC)